Braised Beef Moroccan Style Recipe

Treat your whole family to this mouthwatering Moroccan-inspired dish that will definitely earn you a two thumbs up. Made only with the most nutritious choice ingredients, here’s my Braised Beef Moroccan Style recipe:

Did You Know?

Bone broth contains a variety of valuable nutrients of which many Americans are lacking, in a form your body can easily absorb and use. Some of these include calcium, phosphorus, silicon, collagen, glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and essential amino acids proline, glycine, and glutamine.

Resveratrol, an antioxidant often referred to as the fountain of youth due to its wide-ranging health benefits, is found in abundance in red wine. Resveratrol is also well known for its broad-spectrum antimicrobial, anti-infective, cardio-protective, and neuroprotective properties.

One finely minced or pressed garlic gives off way more flavor and aroma than a dozen cooked whole cloves combined. Chopping finely and/or pressing a clove exposes more surfaces to the air, causing a chemical reaction to produce that strong aroma and potent flavor.

Braised Beef Moroccan Style Recipe

Ingredients

3 tablespoons Dr. Mercola’s coconut oil

2 1/2 pounds chuck roast

2 cups chopped shallots

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tablespoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup grape, pomegranate, or cranberry juice

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

2 cups beef broth

1 cup freshly diced tomatoes

1 1/2 cups golden raisins

Dr. Mercola’s Himalayan salt and freshly ground black pepper

Dr. Mercola’s raw honey (optional)

Serving Size: 6

(Adapted from Healthy Recipes for Your Nutritional Type)

Procedure

Heat a large pot. Add two tablespoons coconut oil. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Add meat to pot, sauté until no longer pink, about five minutes. Transfer meat to bowl.

Heat one tablespoon oil in same pot. Add shallots and sauté till brown, about eight minutes. Stir in garlic and next five ingredients.

Add fruit juice. For acidity or deglazing, add about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar per cup of fruit juice.1 Stir occasionally.

Add the broth, tomatoes with juice, and raisins. Stir to blend. Add beef and juices, heat to simmer.

Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally until the sauce is thick and the beef is tender, about one hour and 15 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

Braised Beef Moroccan Style Recipe Cooking Tips

To pump up the healthy goodness in this braised beef recipe, follow these practical cooking and preparation tips:

Spices

Store your spices in a cool and dark place like your cupboard to prevent sunlight exposure, which facilitates its decline in quality.

Discard spices more than six months old. The sooner you use your spices, the better.

Most dried spices are best added at the beginning of the cooking process since heat and moisture are necessary to release their essential oils.2

Ground and whole spices can be lightly toasted or dry-roasted to release their more natural oils. Toasted spices have a shorter shelf life, so toast only when ready to use in your next recipe.3

Wash your hands thoroughly immediately after handling cayenne pepper and avoid contact with your eyes at all cost to prevent irritation.Tip: to reduce the burning sensation, remove the seeds from the cayenne pepper before cooking.4

Opt for the full organic turmeric spice rather than the curry blend, which has a very little amount of healthy components.

Garlic

Be careful when sautéing garlic as it can turn extremely bitter once burned.

One finely minced or pressed garlic gives off way more flavor and aroma than a dozen cooked whole cloves combined. Tip: the smaller you cut your garlic, the stronger its flavor will be. Chopping finely and/or pressing a clove exposes more surfaces to the air, causing a chemical reaction to produce that strong aroma and potent flavor.5

Tomatoes

Go for organic tomatoes as research shows they contain 55 percent more vitamin C and 139 percent more total phenolic content at the stage of commercial maturity compared to conventionally grown tomatoes.6

Avoid canned tomatoes. Although a popularly convenient choice when making tomato sauces, canned tomatoes typically have a lining that contains bisphenol-A (BPA), which is a potent endocrine-disrupting chemical that has been linked to a number of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, neurological effects, reproductive problems, and obesity.

Since lycopene is a fat-soluble nutrient, it’s best to consume raw or cooked tomatoes with some type of fat, such as coconut oil, which is what we used in this recipe.

Do not put your tomatoes inside the refrigerator to prevent changes in their taste and texture. If a tomato gets too cold, not only will its flavor be affected but also its texture, color, ripening potential, and much more. If you've put your tomatoes in the fridge by mistake, just let them sit at room temperature for 24 hours before eating. Allowing them to ripen naturally on your countertop will bring out the best in your tomato in terms of taste and flavor.

Beef

Buy only locally grown grass-finished beef from a trusted producer to guarantee that the cow was not given grains, hormones, or any artificial enhancers, which have long been proven to cause numerous harmful side effects to humans.

There's a lot of confusion about the term "grass-fed," and in many cases, it's an abused term like the word "natural." Some producers of beef will misuse this term because the rules around it are still somewhat undefined. Most all calves are fed grass for a certain amount of time.

This is one factor that allows less scrupulous producers to get away with calling their beef grass-fed. The key to a truly grass-fed product is actually the finishing. Optimal beef is both grass-fed and grass-finished beef.

To make sure you're getting the highest quality possible, your best bet is to get to know your local farmer or rancher—what his philosophy is and how he raises his herd. If at all possible, visit the farm to see the operation for yourself.

Joey Jones of the GrassfedNetwork.com recommends thinking of grass-fed beef as a seasonal product, just like produce. You could buy it fresh, in season, and then freeze it afterwards. According to Joey, a steak or ground beef will stay fresh for up to a year if properly vacuum sealed and frozen.

Bone Broth

I recommend making your own bone broth instead of buying pre-packed supermarket varieties. For a more detailed instruction on how to make your own bone broth, check out this hearty Bone Broth Recipe.

Make sure you get your bones only from organic, grass-finished beef to save yourself and your family from consuming a concentrated cocktail of toxic growth enhancers and feeds that non-organic sources will give you.

Mix meaty bones with thick marrow, also called “soup bones” by local butchers, with some cut up hooves, knuckles, or skull. Not only will they add more flavor, but they’ll also give your broth that rich gelatinous consistency packed with glucosamine and chondroitin, which your joints will surely thank you for.

Cook your broth in bulk and store them for future use either in storage-friendly quart-sized freezer bags or in ice cube trays, which are very useful when you need to add only a dash of flavor to your dishes.7

Fruit Juice

Make your own fruit juice at home instead of buying from the grocery. This way, you’re sure that it’s free from toxic preservatives and unnecessary additives.

Visit a farmers’ market near you to get hold of the freshest organic and locally grown fruits for your juice.

Choose firm and plump berries, pomegranates, and grapes with vibrant colors. Avoid those with stains, wrinkles, cuts, bleached spots, and other signs of damage.

Why Is Braised Beef Moroccan Style Good for You?

This braised beef recipe is truly a one-of-a-kind dish because of its delightful combination of super nutritious ingredients. Here are more reasons to love my Braised Beef Moroccan Style recipe:

It uses organic, grass-fed beef.

A joint effort between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Clemson University researchers determined a total of 10 key areas where grass-fed is better than grain-fed beef for human health. In a side-by-side comparison, they determined that grass-fed beef was:

Another troubling aspect of grain-fed cattle involves the well-being of the animal and, consequently, the health effect this has on you. Common consequences among grain-fed cattle include acidosis, liver abscesses, bloating, feedlot polio, and dust pneumonia.

It has turmeric.

This bright yellow spice, traditionally used as food and medicine, contains potent antioxidants and benefits that studies have shown can fight diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Research also suggests that turmeric may be helpful in:

Treating inflammatory bowel diseases

Lowering cholesterol levels

Protecting the heart

Relieving indigestion

Improving liver function

Preventing Alzheimer's disease

Cancer prevention and inhibited cancer cell growth –specifically cancer of the breast, colon, prostate, and lung, and childhood leukemia – are also on the list of possible benefits.

Garlic boasts an impressive list of historical use as a natural medicine with modern research to support it. Some of garlic’s most noted health effects include its ability to:

Effectively fight against drug-resistant bacteria

Reduce risk for heart disease and stroke

Normalize your cholesterol and blood pressure

It's thought that much of garlic's therapeutic benefits come from its sulfur-containing compounds, such as allicin, which also give it its characteristic smell. Other health-promoting compounds include oligosaccharides, arginine-rich proteins, selenium, and flavonoids.

It has bone broth.

Bone broth contains a variety of valuable nutrients of which many Americans are lacking, in a form your body can easily absorb and use. Some of these include calcium, phosphorus, silicon, collagen, glucosamine, and chondroitin sulfate, and essential amino acids proline, glycine, and glutamine.

Aside from that, bone broth is also worth incorporating into your family’s everyday diet because of its astounding reputation as a food medicine. Experts have found that bone broth:

Helps heal and seal your gut, and promotes healthy digestion

Inhibits infection caused by cold and flu viruses

Reduces joint pain and inflammation

Encourages calming effects

Promotes strong, healthy bones

It uses antioxidant-rich fruit juice instead of alcohol-based wines.

Most braised beef recipes use wine to add extra flavor to the dish, but for this, I opted to use freshly made fruit juice that’s loaded with vitamins and antioxidants.

Resveratrol, an antioxidant often referred to as the fountain of youth due to its wide-ranging health benefits, is found in abundance in grape, pomegranate, and cranberry. Muscadine grapes have the highest concentration of resveratrol in nature because of their extra thick skins and numerous seeds where it’s concentrated.

Resveratrol is well-known for its broad-spectrum antimicrobial, anti-infective, cardio-protective, and neuroprotective properties. In addition to its anti-cancer properties, resveratrol has also been shown to help:

Reverse oxidative stress

Reduce inflammation

Normalize your lipids

Protect your heart

Stabilize your insulin levels

I do not, however, suggest drinking large amounts of fruit juice as they contain veryhigh concentrations of fructose, which will cause your insulin to spike and may counter the benefits of the antioxidants. As a general rule, it's wise to severely restrict your consumption of fruit juice, especially if your uric acid is above the ideal levels. Also, if you suffer from type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or cancer, you'd be best off avoiding fruit juices altogether until you've normalized your uric acid and insulin levels. Aside from that, I believe most will benefit from restricting their fructose to 25 grams a day; and as little as 15 grams a day if you're diabetic or have chronic health issues. Read this article to learn how much fructose can be found in different kinds of fruits.

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